How Often Should You Live Stream?

How Often Should You Live Stream?

As businesses, marketers, gamers, and others flock to live video streaming, they have a lot of common questions. One of the most common, asked by streamers of all sorts, is, “How often should I be streaming?” In this post, we hope to answer that question once and for all.

There are a few different types of streamers. Each type has different goals and target audiences. The types include: the individual or independent streamers, the small to medium-size businesses, and the big corporation/enterprise streamers.

While each of these types may have different end goals, at a very basic level, the initial answer to “How often should I live stream?” is more than you do now. If you’re wondering if you’re streaming enough, you probably aren’t. Even if you think you’re streaming too much, you probably aren’t.

For any streamer to get the most out of streaming, they need a strong audience that keeps coming back. The best way to get that, is to consistently put out new live content on a regular basis. The only way to hold it, is to keep doing so.

The basic rule of thumb is, you should stream as often, and for as long, as you have something interesting to offer.

Could you strap a camera to your head and live stream 24 hours a day? Yes. Would all 24 hours be interesting to your audience? Probably not. You spend at least a few of those hours sleeping, and that’s not likely to draw a ton of viewers, or help grow your brand. You could, however, go live 10 different times during the day, while interesting things are going on. That might be great attention-grabbing content.

Now that we’ve got the philosophical answers down, let’s focus on how often each type of streamer should go live.

Independent Streamer

Independent streamers are the individual people who typically live stream themselves, creating and editing content all on their own. Many of these folks are gamers, vloggers, or aspiring media personalities. While many have found ways to monetize their efforts, the majority started streaming as a hobby. For most, the main goal is simply to grow the biggest audience possible.

When it comes to how often independent streamers should stream, the answer is, as much as they’re willing to. Typically, the “brand” for independent streamers is the streamer. So anytime you’re ready to be you, you can stream it.

Small to Medium-Sized Businesses

Small to medium-sized businesses have flocked to live streaming thanks to its potential reach and its cost-effectiveness. At the same time, these are also organizations that sometimes have limited resources to assign to their live streaming efforts. That can be an extra complication when trying to determine how often to live stream.

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For these types of streamers, the best method is to have a digital marketing strategy that incorporates live video, but be flexible in its execution. First, figure out how much you could stream by surveying your live streaming team members to determine what their schedules allow, and from that point, discuss what you might stream if you went live at those available times. If something sounds like it would be interesting, and would draw an audience, put it on the calendar.

Enterprise Streamers

When it comes to how often enterprise streamers should stream, the answer is 24-48 hours per day. How do you stream 48 hours in one day, you might ask? You stream multiple things at the same time.

Live video streaming is one of the most cost-effective tools for large organizations available today. It lends itself to marketing, branding, customer education, customer support, internal communication, employee training, and more. Enterprise organizations that don’t take advantage of all they can get from live video streaming are wasting their time, and money, on obsolete solutions.

With tools like Switchboard Cloud, enterprise streamers can stream to multiple platforms, as often, and for as long, as they’d like. Enterprise streamers can live stream all their big events, product launches, and demonstrations. You can easily turn a webinar or conference call into a live public event as well.

Keep in mind, live video streaming isn’t always about the public. Enterprise organizations can get a lot out of using private streams. Organizations can use live streaming to connect with remote employees and stream meetings, training, or conferences for their employees to take part in right from their desks. Of course, these streams can also be archived to watch back later.